Dwayne Johnson to play King Kamehameha in Robert Zemeckis' King

With several other studios in the running, Deadline has reported that Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema came out on top during a bidding war for KING, an epic which is to star Dwayne Johnson as King Kamehameha, a legendary king who was the first to unite the warring Hawaiian islands.

Robert Zemeckis is set to direct the film which has been scripted by BRAVEHEART's Randall Wallace. Upon his birth, it was prophesied that Kamehameha would unite the Hawaiian islands. "He took control of Hawaii’s destiny, and gave the islanders leverage in advancing the culture in trading with the foreign ships from Europe that began showing up on the shores of islands that must have seemed like paradise," Deadline reports. "Albeit a sometimes dangerous one as explorers like Simon Metcalfe and Captain James Cook discovered before Kamehameha forcibly unified the islands." KING has been a passion project of Dwayne Johnson's for most of his career, but he finally decided that the time was right to pursue it while filming JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE in Hawaii. Johnson and Seven Bucks Productions producer Hiram Garcia knew that they wanted a "visceral historical epic" along the same lines as BRAVEHEART, so they approached Randall Wallace about the project who agreed to write it on spec. The script was then sent to Robert Zemeckis who quickly agreed to direct, and last year, a Hawaiian Kahu (a priest) held a ceremony in order to bless the project as well as Dwayne Johnson, Randall Wallace, and Hiram Garcia.

KING certainly sounds exciting, particularly as the project is something which Dwayne Johnson seems incredibly passionate about, but it may still be awhile before the film comes together as Johnson's future slate is quite packed. The actor is currently shooting JUNGLE CRUISE and will soon move on to the FAST & FURIOUS spin-off HOBBS AND SHAW. Johnson also has a sequel to JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE, the action/thriller RED NOTICE, a sequel to BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, and more in development. Busy dude.